zellij-org/zellij · error · anyhow::Error

Failed to find pane {pane_id:?}

Error message

Failed to find pane {pane_id:?}

What it means

Returned by the mouse handler's StartSelection action when tab.get_pane_with_id_mut cannot find the pane id attached to the mouse action. The mouse click that should start a text selection cannot locate its target pane, so the selection gesture is aborted with an error.

Source

Thrown at zellij-server/src/tab/mouse_handler.rs:784

                pane_id: _,
                position,
            } => Self::execute_focus_pane(tab, position, client_id),
            MouseAction::FocusPaneAndClickThrough {
                pane_id: _,
                position,
                event: click_event,
            } => Self::execute_focus_pane_and_click_through(tab, position, click_event, client_id),
            MouseAction::ShowFloatingPanesAndFocus { pane_id } => {
                tab.show_floating_panes();
                tab.floating_panes.focus_pane(pane_id, client_id);
                Ok(MouseEffect::state_changed())
            },
            MouseAction::StartSelection { pane_id, position } => {
                let osc133_command_selection = tab.osc133_command_selection;
                let word_separators = tab.word_separators.clone();
                let pane = tab
                    .get_pane_with_id_mut(pane_id)
                    .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Failed to find pane {pane_id:?}"))?;
                let relative_position = pane.relative_position(&position);

                let mut leave_clipboard_message = false;
                pane.set_selection_options(osc133_command_selection, &word_separators);
                pane.start_selection(&relative_position, client_id);
                if pane.get_selected_text(client_id).is_some() {
                    leave_clipboard_message = true;
                }
                if pane.supports_mouse_selection() {
                    tab.selecting_with_mouse_in_pane = Some(pane_id);
                }
                if leave_clipboard_message {
                    Ok(MouseEffect::state_changed_and_leave_clipboard_message())
                } else {
                    Ok(MouseEffect::default())
                }
            },
            MouseAction::UpdateSelection { position } => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 98a0837077)

Solutions

1. Retry the selection gesture - if the pane list changed, the next click resolves fresh state
2. Avoid clicking into a pane that is in the middle of closing/resizing; let the layout settle
3. If reproducible on stable layouts, capture `zellij --debug` logs and the exact click coordinates; report as a pane-id staleness bug
4. Plugin authors: recompute pane positions after receiving layout-change events instead of reusing cached ids

Example fix

// before
let pane = tab
    .get_pane_with_id_mut(pane_id)
    .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("Failed to find pane {pane_id:?}"))?;

// after: no-op gracefully when the pane vanished mid-gesture
let Some(pane) = tab.get_pane_with_id_mut(pane_id) else {
    log::debug!("StartSelection: pane {pane_id:?} no longer exists, ignoring");
    return Ok(MouseEffect::default());
};

// before acting on a mouse action carrying a pane id:
if tab.get_pane_with_id_mut(pane_id).is_none() {
    return Ok(MouseEffect::default());
}

fn selection_target_exists(tab: &Tab, pane_id: PaneId) -> bool {
    tab.get_pane_with_id(pane_id).is_some()
}

// in MouseHandler dispatch: degrade selection failures to no-ops
match MouseHandler::handle_mouse_action(action, tab, position, client_id) {
    Ok(effect) => effect,
    Err(e) => {
        log::debug!("mouse action {action:?} skipped: {e:#}");
        MouseEffect::default()
    },
}

When it happens

Trigger: A mouse press that begins a selection arrives with a pane id that no longer exists in the tab - typically because the pane closed while a click/drag was in flight, or the action was computed from stale pane geometry after a layout change.

Common situations: Click-drag text selection racing a pane exit or resize; selecting text in a pane closed by a background process; mouse events processed after a layout swap (swap-layout) invalidated pane ids; remote/latency-induced reordering of close vs. click events.

Related errors

• Could not find editor pane to replace
• failed to find pane with id {pane_id:?}
• Failed to find active pane
• Failed to find pane {active_pane_id:?}
• Failed to find pane at position

AI-assisted analysis of zellij-org/zellij@98a0837077 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f1f7d7c410f1c940. Report an issue: GitHub.